Records That Changed Our Lives: Defying gatekeepers with 'Uh Huh Her' and Tiger Trap
Records That Changed Our Lives: Defying gatekeepers with 'Uh Huh Her' and Tiger Trap
PJ Harvey's Uh Huh Her and Tiger Trap's Tiger Trap are featured in our Records That Changed Our Lives series. Photo Illustration by Estefania Mitre/NPR/Getty Images hide caption
PJ Harvey's Uh Huh Her and Tiger Trap's Tiger Trap are featured in our Records That Changed Our Lives series.
Photo Illustration by Estefania Mitre/NPR/Getty ImagesWhat record changed your life?
Last year, NPR Music asked 12 writers to answer that question as part of Turning the Tables. That's our long-running project about musical greatness, where we discuss artists, histories and lists of songs and albums that make up the popular music canon and challenge the often sexist and exclusionary way that canon has been shaped. Turning the Tables has published lists of the 150 Greatest Albums Made By Women, the 200 Greatest Songs By 21st Century Women+ and more. In last year's series, we turned the lens on our own lives by enlisting women and non-binary critics to each tell us about one life-changing record by a woman artist. This March, for Women's History Month, we're taking over All Song Considered every Wednesday to go deep with writers from the series.
Hear More Episodes In The Series
This week, host Marissa Lorusso, who edited the Records that Changed Our Lives series, is joined by two writers for a conversation about challenging assumptions about what makes an album great. Laura Snapes, deputy music editor for The Guardian, discusses feeling inspired by PJ Harvey's sixth album, Uh Huh Her — even though critical reception was decidedly less positive. And Maria Sherman, author of the book Larger Than Life: A History of Boy Bands from NKOTB to BTS, talks about how, to her own surprise, Tiger Trap's self-titled album made her fall in love with twee music.
You can listen to our full conversation at the audio link at the top of the page, and hear songs we discussed below.